Barbelith Underground > Temple > 2002-"Whatcha Gonna Do??"-Call 2 Arms

Excellent job May.

My original reason for posting my questions was because, frankly, I thought (and still do think) that The King is Dead is a fiction suit created to fuck with the more idealistic and ‘innocent’ posters on The Magick.

Other than a gut feeling, the main reasons I thought this was that:

1) Although s/he is supposedly a long time poster (3-4 years on Barb), s/he is using a ‘new’ fictionsuit. This is in the same post that states ‘No multiple fictionsuits’.

2) It was TKID who promoted the whole ‘policing’ function which just seemed a bit... loaded to me and although s/he was seeming to come off as experienced and ‘impressed’ with the growth of ‘The Magick’ the posting seemed to have an agenda and was also a bit naive.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe TKID is just a novice when it comes to working with groups and is still a bit ashamed to come out of the ‘magic closet’. If this is the case then I heartily apologize for my cynicism and doubts.

The point I’m really getting to is that a lot of the workings on The Magick recently (from GEK to the Peace Mango, to the Quantum Butterfly) are, in my opinion, the products of budding and experienced magicians who are starting to really get a handle on their practice and what they want to do with it. Magicians who still have a sense of innocence (that is NOT meant in a patronizing way) and idealism about them.

While I am still idealistic, I’m afraid my innocence has been replaced with cynicism. Even without my doubts about TKID my initial reaction was along the lines of ‘this will never work’. This was unfortunately based upon over 3 years of experience working with groups that have all had good and bad elements and politics to them.

Then I realized that I’m not serving anyone’s best interests by feeding that cynicism and spreading it around.

When I posted my second posting where I named May along with TKID it was because I thought that if anyone had the raw enthusiasm and lack of cynicism to take the initial idea (whether it was suggested to fuck with us or not) and actually do something with it, it was probably May considering how much work she’s done with other board related work recently.

If people want to start a group (especially those people who have never experienced group work before and want to give it a try) then I think that’s great and fully support the idea.

I still don’t think I’m able to commit to another group but I would love to stick around M.O.B. for awhile as a ‘consultant’ or ‘auxiliary member’, at least, if you guys will have me in that limited role. I’d love to help make it a functioning group instead of just saying “that’ll never work” and walking away feeling justified in my cynicism. I heartily encourage other experienced group workers to do the same if they agree with the intent behind this new group.

That being said, I have a few ‘Devil’s Advocate’ questions and critiques that are intended to head off problems before they even begin:

1) ‘Heroes’ is just as loaded of a word as ‘Policing’. One person’s hero is another’s vigilante and another’s criminal. Any ‘missions’ or workings of an idealistic nature should take that into account and be supported, as May wrote on the new MOB site, by a full vote.

2) What will the nature of the ‘initiation’ be? Are people still considering stripping themselves of their fictionsuits at least to the other members of the order? I personally think that shows a certain dedication and commitment as well as a willingness to face the fear of dropping fictionsuits. Of course, that's easy for me to say since I don't use a fictionsuit anyway.

3) One of my original questions still stands: “What are the responsibilities when you become a member?” Are you required to participate in all workings that are voted upon? Can you choose to decline a working and still maintain your membership? How much ‘attendance’ is required to maintain membership.

Anyway, good job on starting MOB May. I hope that it flourishes and thrives.